The Jury Group in 12 Angry Men, a Movie by Sydney Lumet

12 Angry Men

A group is usually referred to as people working together towards a common cause. The movie 12 Angry Men involved a jury group of 12 men arguing a murder trial. They were all together and their objective was to figure out if a boy was guilty of killing his father. A characteristic of groups that was very easy to see since the beginning of the movie was the fact that usually it takes longer to make decisions in a group that an individual. We see this because in the beginning of the movie when they took a vote on who thought the boy was guilty of the crime everyone knew how they felt. 11 voted guilty 1 voted not guilty. The fact that all of them had to come to one concise answer it took hours for them to finally agree of the boy being not guilty it took more time.

Also in chapter 9 it says that groups have the potential to suppress individuals and encourage conformity. We say this half way through the movie when one of the men couldn’t make up their mind, one man asked him what he thought and because the person who asked him believed not guilty he voted not guilty as well.

But when another man talked to him that believed the boy was guilty he changed his vote again. This group being together made the group more creative when coming up with new ideas and evidence. What I learned the most from watching this movie was to be patient and have an open mind about other peoples ideas. One of the men were quite hard headed he didn’t change his mind till he was the very last person that was still voting guilty. Even though there was so much pointing to the boy not being guilty he was steadfast with his opinion it was as if he was not even listening to the other people talking in his head all he could hear was that the boy stabbed his dad to death.